I often marvel at the apparent idiocy of extreme sports. Normal, somewhat sensible sports like skiing or skateboarding or diving are transformed into death-defying high risk endeavors by people who seek thrills and the challenge to do the impossible. Athletes and lunatics attempt to make difficult sports even harder, and […]
It’s tough having opinions. I love to write this blog, and I use it to share my perspectives — for what they’re worth. I try very hard to say that these are my views and nothing more. I often try to write in provocative, and sometimes controversial, ways for no […]
“Why don’t you get more angry with people?” one of my new colleague’s asked me recently? “You get hammered by people on your blog and you never seem to tell them off.” There are a number of things wrong with this observation. First, I do get irritated, but it seldom […]
I read an article this last week that says our Council of Bishops approved a plan to make The United Methodist Church ten-year’s younger in a decade. I thought, “That can’t be right.” Just doing the math, we would need 70% of our existing over-50 membership to die or go […]
Stephen King wrote a novella entitled, The Running Man, about a brutal futuristic society where game shows and public executions were combined to produce the ultimate reality show. Prisoners were given the opportunity to try to escape death — on national TV — by facing unexpected and unimaginable challenges. The […]
Two recent conversations stick with me and stand in stark contrast to my understanding of the church. Now, my understanding may be completely wrong, so take what I say with a grain of salt. My personal belief is that the church exists to serve in the world — that we […]
As I prepare to preach on All Saints day, three things come to mind. First, of course, I think of all those significant people who helped to shape my life and faith. I think of my mother’s simple faith — she didn’t want to think too deeply about it, and […]
An interesting thing happened in the church during the twentieth century in the United States. Christian giving shifted from caring for the poor, saving lives and spreading the gospel to funding the church budget. Centuries old spiritual teachings morphed into platitudes for raising money and getting people to put more in […]
Loving books, God and the church impels me to look at local church libraries whenever I visit a new place. Were we to view church libraries as a “witness” to a church’s learning and beliefs, we would generally be misled. Church libraries are odd little repositories for an eclectic and […]
“My people won’t let me take a day off,” confessed a colleague. “What do you mean “won’t let you?” I asked. “I mean that they call me and they hunt me down. They will not leave me alone.” “Well, what are you doing about it? How are you defining and […]
United Methodeviations 